It is great if you read a document you really can agree with: The African Youth Charter is such a document. On 21 pages and 31 articles, this treaty between the member states of the African Union spells out what is crucial in the field of youth participation: National youth policies, National youth adminstration, real help for capacity-building, health issues, basic rights for young people, the right to participate in policy-making processes. A lot of issues are mentioned and by reading it (without getting too deep into the issues) I have nothing to object.
However, the African Youth Charter has been adopted by the African Union on July, 2, 2006. However, the website of the African Union lists only one country (i.e. Mali) that has actually signed the charter and no country has ratified it yet. Therefore, it is important to note that the African Youth Charter becomes only official if 15 countries have ratified it (cf. Article 30).
Is the Youth Charter a good idea? Should Lutheran churches promote it? Should Lutheran youth organizations start to lobby their governments and parliments to ratify the African Youth Charter and should we work to get them to implement them? I am very interested to learn more about your opinion.
Monthly Archives: June 2007
The African Youth Charter – a way to improve youth participation?
Posted in Africa, Justice, Life, Poverty/Affluence, UN, Youth, Youth Ministry, Youth participation
The first generation that can eradicate poverty
Today, the Civil Society Development Forum has started. It is a conference of Non-Governmental Organizations taking place in Geneva. I am attending here together with a lot of youth organizations. Its main focus is to reach the Millenium Goals
Salil Shetty, Director of the UN Millenium Campaign, was pleased that some of the Millenium Development Goals are actually on track of being achieved. However, on the whole he was quite disappointed that there is no more activity towards eradicating poverty. His conclusion: There is lack of political will. Both in poor and rich countries. Many governments in poor countries rather spend money for arms and military than improving the education system. On the other hand, rich countries do not keep their own promises of raising support for development. However, the world itself is so rich. Nobody has to be hungry: “This is the first generation that can eradicate poverty.”
The Director General of the UN office in Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, contributed an interesting number: Worldwide 1.3 Trillion US Dollars every year are spent for military and arms! If just a fraction of this money would be spent on people: There would be no poverty.
Posted in Europe, Justice, Poverty, Poverty/Affluence, UN, Youth, Youth Ministry, Youth participation
The Land, The Wall
“A land [Palestine] without a people…” This is part of a popular saying used as justifying the foundation of the current state of Israel. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Although never its own, independent state, Palestine has been continuously inhabited- in recent times mainly by Christian and Muslim Arabs.
When Israel was founded, after the 1948 war, Arabs were killed, deported, or intentionally scared into leaving what was then the state of Israel, even though it had been their homeland for centuries. People left their houses, their jobs, and even the graveyards that held the remains of their ancestors.
Even today, Israel has a ‘right of return’ policy, where every Jew from any part of the world can come to Israel and become an Israeli citizen. This includes those who cannot trace any ancestry to the Holy Land, whose families might have lived outside of Israel since biblical times. But those Palestinians who lived there only a generation ago, some of whom are still alive, have never been able to return to their homes.
After the 1967 war, Israel began its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Recently, they have constructed a separation wall, with the intention to divide the Palestinian people. Unlike the wall that the USA is building along the border with Mexico, this wall is being built in Palestinian territory, often many miles inside the territory of the West Bank, allowing Israel to seize land that does not belong to them, while dividing communities.
The wall has successfully separated East Jerusalem, recognized by the UN and even the US as Palestinian territory, with the West Bank. The town of Bait Hanina and many other Palestinian towns have the wall cutting straight through it, separating families and neighbors. Kids can’t get to their schools, farmers can’t reach their land, and people cannot get to their jobs. There was even a case in a Jerusalem suburb (in a Palestinian refugee camp) where Israel built the wall next to a school, making its playground inaccessible to the students because it was on the opposite side of the wall.
If Israel hasn’t illegally seized land in this way, they can always just use a settlement to claim the land. Miles inside the West Bank, groups of Israeli’s take land, often on hilltops, in land that is utilized by the Palestinians, and build a settlement. Israel then builds walls around the settlement, then roads to Israeli territory and other settlements, and then walls around those roads, constantly squeezing the Palestinians. Palestinian cities like Bethlehem and Hebron are now finding themselves completely surrounded by settlements, cutting them off from other parts of the West bank.
This has been done deliberately as part of a larger strategy to separate families and communities, in an effort to make it increasingly difficult for Palestinians to resist the occupation. Another strategy the Israelis use is the restriction of the freedom of movement…
Posted in Asia/Pacific, Justice, Life, Middle East
A Story of Unemployment, Struggle and Faith
Refering to how difficult has been for some people to find a job, and specially because of Roger´s comment about the situation there in Germany with the very well prepared people, I would like to share a story. This one, belongs to a very close person. Of course I had his permission to talk about his life in this aspect.
He got graduated from Industry Engineering, very skilled with mathematics. After finish university started working for a builder company selling apartments for three months, because there was not anyother opportunity for him at that time. Finaly he got a very good job at a Multinational Pharmaceutical Company, they renewed his contract every three months for two years, finally they hired him for eleven years. During this time he got two degrees relating with financial management and marketing, attended many seminaries, got a car and was paying an apartment. Life seemed very comfortable and successful. One day he lost his job, he couldnt continue paying for the apartment so he lost it too. Had to sell his car and other belongings. He ended up living on his mother´s house. For three years was trying to find another job, but because of the time, money and effort he has invested on his education he couldnt accept a job where they pay him a little salary. In the meanwhile, he decided to invest the money he left on creating a little company. He suffered an armed robbery twice. With nothing on his hands he claim for help to his uncle, who lend him some money to start a new one, because he wanted to be the owner of his own company. All this happened while living on his mother´s house. The company was expanding but he still needed money to invest, he claim for a bank loan, but it was denied many times. Finally he was hired by a pharmaceutical company again. Then he was able to pay some debts he got when being unemployed. Had to close his company and being an employee again. The payment was 8% lower than the one he had seven years before, he accepted, and now he is trying to buy another apartment and struggling in life.
More than a story, this is a testimony of faith. When I asked him what he thought about his own life, and the difficulties he has passed, he said: I learned that even though is hard to start again in life, we must not give in, because faith is the only thing that keeps us alive.
Ivette Alexandra Nossa Pérez. Colombia.
Posted in Faith, Latin America/Carribean, Life
Black Gold – A film about coffee
I like coffee. Very much actually. And here is a film about coffee. But it is not about how much milk you take into your coffee. It is about how little the coffee growers actually get for the tremendous work they do. Most is taken by the Northern companies.
“Trade is more important than Aid,” says one person in the trailer. What is necassary is fair prices. The fair trade movement offers the possibility to buy coffee, chocolate not for the cheapest possible but for a fair price. For a price the producers can live on.
This film is promoting the idea of fair trade and it explains why a new system of trade is so important. I haven’t seen the movie. But I will soon. And then I am going to tell you about it.
Posted in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Enviroment, Europe, Justice, Latin America/Carribean, Life, Poverty/Affluence
I”m back home
After two years… finally I go back home here in my beautiful place… it is so nice and so happy to meet all beloved family and friends… I feel like born again and seems like everything is so good together with all the people who are waiting for me… hmmm… I directly attacked my favorite food.. yummi and in the next morning going out to see the biggest lake in North Sumatra – Indonesia. The name of the lake if Toba lake.. and then to see the new building of my home church.. wow it is so big now… hopefully the people will come to the church will be more and more… especially the youth… I met some friends who are married already and they asked about my wedding. I just laugh on loud… because I cannot answer their question. Let God answer all the prayers…
how do you feel after long time far away from home and then finally back home? I think we can share about our experience being far away from home.
Posted in Life
Getting a job after 30´s
Lack of opportunities, age, being a single mother, not enough financial resources to study, experience….. Many of these reasons we face when getting a job. Specially if you are approaching 30`s. This is a very common situaction that many young people are facing in LatinAmerica. I have seen, and experienced myself, how difficult is to get a job concerning with what we have studied. Am no trying judge who is guilty, government, parents or ourselves, but to think about how we as church are giving a support to our youth about this subject.
Refering to this I have some suggestions that could be useful when talking with our young members, because it causes depresion and anxiety:
In first place give them the confidence to talk about what are their worries in life, dreams, frustrations, goals. Have a friendly approaching, showing them we understand their situation or at least that we are able to “put ourselves in their shoes”.
Encourage them to put their faith only in Jesus, who really knows the intensity of our preocupations and frustrations. He knows us better than anyother person in the world, because he lived with us, he was one of us. And the most important: he promised not to leave us alone, until the end of the times!!!
Another good idea could be to create a data base of the people who have not a job, and when someone of the congregation knows about a position, the information with the résumés will be available.
The goal is not to find them a job because some times its not in our hands, unless we have the chance to make it possible for someone. But to provide them with the tools to face the future with faith, effort and patience.
Ivette Alexandra Nossa Pérez
Bogotá, Colombia
Posted in Latin America/Carribean, Life
Iraqi Refugees – Solidarity with the suffering
George Arende who is very active in the youth ministry of the Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church sent me this article. It describes the effects of war from the perspective of those who had to flee the war:
“Fuheis, Jordan, June, 2007-We are in Fuheis West Amman in Jordan, an area that is largely occupied by 60% of Iraqi refugees living in Amman. The town is crowded meaning most of social amenities are stretched to capacity. Most families share apartments… one such family is that of Mrs. Brenita and her sister Berita.
Brenita is a woman of four children, three girls and one boy. At 42, she has experienced a lot. Her story is moving…a recollection of painful experience in Iraq and now in Jordan. As we enter her house, hardly have we spent a minute before water is served to us by one of her younger daughter. The other children are criss-crossing the living room, trying to catch a glimpse of us. Within no time we are all set for introductions to pave way for our one-on-one discussion. Am accompanied by one Jordanian woman (who I met in the hotel a couple of days ago; she is helping me with translations).
Brenita starts by telling us where she lived in Iraq before coming to Jordan. ‘I lived in Al-rasfr in Baghdad before I came to Jordan’. The situation in Iraq was too harsh for her to bear and hence had to move. ‘In Iraq there are no jobs, my children are not secure, we receive death threats from militia….our children do not have a future’.-she told us. She went further. ‘My husband was very rich in Iraq…I do not understand why my children have to live like this’.(her face suddenly changes, sadness reveals as she starts sobbing).
In any war the affected and most vulnerable groups include women and children. The realities for Brenita’s family forced her out of comfort she enjoyed in Iraq some 8 years ago. ‘I sold all my furniture’s….and all my belongings to leave Iraq’-narrated Brenita. As many other Iraq refugees living in Jordan, she commuted from Baghdad on a bus, a journey which took her with her family 24 hours to reach Amman.
Brenita’s husband left 6years ago to search for an alternative life ‘better life’. His dreams of settling in Sweden were thwarted (maybe the gods were not on his side) arrested and detained by Nepal authority. She hasn’t seen him since then. Berita (40) has a similar story; she has three children under her care. She last saw her husband thirteen years ago. As her brother-in-law; her husband was arrested with forged passport while on transit to Sweden and arrested. Berita tearful explained. ‘Since my husband left, he hasn’t called….at times I do think he went for good’.
Both sisters have bills to settle and more so ‘hope’ to re-assure their children. ‘I do two jobs…cleaning floors, dusting people’s houses and I work in a glass factory’-Said Brenita. Her sister used to work in elders care center in Amman; but stopped due to back ache. Money is hard to come by for many Iraq families… schools in Jordan are reserved for the rich, with the affordable public schools restricted for Iraq refugees. Berita said-‘our children stay at home…. Schools in Jordan are expensive… life is miserable here in Jordan…but I prefer being in Jordan that being dead in Iraq’.
When asked about her future, Brenita said. ‘I have no future…life is difficult…back at home miserable…so what do we do? We are desperate’. Berita’s son Heros is only 15years but works in a local supermarket since her mother cannot afford to pay her school fees. He works for 14 hours a day 8am-10pm and only earns 2JD (USD2.8). Iraqi refugees in Jordan are not allowed to work; whenever they do, it is illegal and hence are under-paid. ‘I have to work to support my family…if I have time to study and not work… I can become a doctor’-Heros explained.
The only hope to millions of Iraqi women and children like Brenita and Heros living in Jordan is to be supported with education, medical care, food and non-food items to transform their lives into comfort is the case for many worldwide. If only we can divide the effort and multiply the effect.”
Posted in Asia/Pacific, Justice, Life, Poverty/Affluence
War is devastating – for everybody
There is war in so many parts of the world. And we hear so many stories what happens to the victims of war. That is horrible but is necessary for us to understand the consequences of war.
However, there is also the perspective of the soldiers who fight the war – and their loved ones at home. Natalie is a young Lutheran from the USA. Her boyfriend is an American soldier working as a medic in Iraq. On her blog on the website of the young adult ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America she writes about her feelings and how she tries to keep up a “normal” life in her context – even though fear is her constant companion.
Her life is certainly not comparable to the life of victims of war. But it shows that war is devastating – for everybody.
Posted in Asia/Pacific, Justice, Life, North America
UN plan focuses on youth, media, migration
The UN held an expert working group to research how to bring cultures together, and their findings revealed an emphasis on media, youth empowerment and migration was key. I agree! This is what young people and youth organizations have been saying for years. Student exchanges and investments in youth employment are key to reach young people – especially the youth majority of the Middle East – who feel disenfranchised and forgotten, and surveys should by and large would chose to leave their countries if they could. I hope the UN doesn’t lose sight of this important plan, and finds many ways to engage young people.
EDUCATION AND MEDIA KEY ASPECTS OF UN BID TO BRIDGE ISLAM AND WEST – ENVOY
New York, Jun 14 2007 6:00PM
Education, the media, youth and migration are at the heart of a two-year plan to bridge the divide between Islam and the West that was presented today to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon by the United Nations envoy heading the global campaign on the issue, known as the “Alliance of Civilizations.”
Speaking to reporters in New York after his meeting with Mr.
Ban, Jorge Sampaio, the UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, explained that the initiative is about
“building bridges between societies, promoting dialogue and
understanding, and forging collective political will to address
the world’s imbalances, tensions and sources of conflict.”
He said the Alliance will be focusing on four main fields of
activity – education, youth, media and migration. “Teaching
about other cultures and religions heightens students’ awareness of the beliefs and traditions that shape other people’s lives,”he said.
“Media consists of the most powerful means to promote knowledgeabout other cultures, understanding [and] mutual respect,” he noted, adding that migration is “a natural bridge between diverse communities.”
The plan presented today sets out a range of projects and
initiatives which the Alliance will support and help develop over the next two years, including a media fund to promote productions developed across cultural, religious and/or national lines, a Youth Employment Centre aimed at increasing work opportunities for young people in the Middle East, and a project aimed at expanding international student exchange programmes, according to a press release issued by the Alliance.
In addition, the Alliance will establish a “rapid response
media-based mechanism” to provide platforms for constructive debate during times of increased tensions around cross-cultural issues. It will also develop an “online clearinghouse” of best practices, materials and resources on cross-cultural dialogue andcooperation projects.
He also drew attention to an international forum, to be held in
Spain in January 2008, that will provide “a platform to forge
partnerships, launch new initiatives and stimulate projects” bygovernments, civil society, donors and the private sector. The forum – set to become an annual event – will also evaluate efforts and determine future action.
In addition, a voluntary fund will support the Alliance’s work.
The Alliance of Civilizations was created in 2005 at the
initiative of Spain and Turkey and under UN auspices to try to tackle fear and suspicion, bridge divides and overcome prejudicesand polarizations between Islam and the West. In April, Mr. Ban appointed Mr. Sampaio, a former President of Portugal, as the first UN High Representative for the Alliance.
Posted in UN
